Bouchon de Cauliflower

Posted March 22, 2015

Filed under appetizers, large muffin, Large round mold, mini muffin, octogonal silpat, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, snacks, vegetables, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

As a child, I remembered staying hours at a table to finish my vegetables. I hated peas. Especially the ones that I called “facon grand-mere”. If you grew up in France, you would be able to recall those peas I am talking about, the ones cooked with sauteed onion, and maybe lettuce. It sounds disgusting, but now that I am adult, I love those peas.

Do you have one of those picky eaters at your house???

Though I was not a fan of vegetables, because they were often, just steamed and seasoned with salt and pepper, I liked cauliflower. I liked them because my mom would make a casserole like dish. It included a white sauce ( also called bechamel sauce) and a lot of swiss cheese. I guess yon can say that it was a healthier version of broccoli and velvetta.

I wish my mom had found ways to disguise the other vegetables I hate so much;-)

Today I would like to share with you a retake of the Cauliflower Béchamel Dish if you will. It is easy to make, yummy, and can be served as an appetizer. Today I used cauliflower, but you coud use any other vegetables to hide;-)

Ingredients for 20 bouchons, or 20 bites:

250 gr. or about 1 cup of cauliflower ( or any other vegetables)
20 gr. or about 1/8 cup of parmesan
30 gr. or about 1/3 cup of swiss cheese
30 gr. or 2 tbsp of flour
20 cl or 7 oz of milk
20 cl or about 7 oz. of cream
2 eggs
salt
pepper
camembert or Brie

Steam the vegetable so that it will be soft enough to mash. Of course you can do this however you wish. At my house, fan of the Demarle products, I like to use my large round mold. I place the vegetable in the large round mold. I cover the mold with the octogonal silpat, and steam the vegetables for 3minutes.
With a fork mash the vegetable, here the cauliflower.
Add all the other ingredients and mix well.
Season with salt and pepper so that they will be to your liking. A dash of each will be enough though.
Place the mini muffin tray on a perforated sheet. If using regular metalware, do not forget to spray the muffin tray with lots of oil so that the cauliflower bites will not stick. No need to do this with the demarle cookware.
Cut little squares of brie, or camembert of about 1/2 inch or 1/5 cm and place them in the opening of each mini muffin.
Pour the mixture over brie.
Cook in a warm oven at 400 for 15-20 minutes.
ENJOY!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Cauliflower Bouchons

Servings: 10 people
Time: 15 minutes
Difficulty: Super Easy
Print

Ingredients for 20 bouchons, or 20 bites:

250 gr. or about 1 cup of cauliflower ( or any other vegetables)
20 gr. or about 1/8 cup of parmesan
30 gr. or about 1/3 cup of swiss cheese
30 gr. or 2 tbsp of flour
20 cl or 7 oz of milk
20 cl or about 7 oz. of cream
2 eggs
salt
pepper
camembert or Brie

Steam the vegetable so that it will be soft enough to mash. Of course you can do this however you wish. At my house, fan of the Demarle products, I like to use my large round mold. I place the vegetable in the large round mold. I cover the mold with the octogonal silpat, and steam the vegetables for 3minutes.
With a fork mash the vegetable, here the cauliflower.
Add all the other ingredients and mix well.
Season with salt and pepper so that they will be to your liking. A dash of each will be enough though.
Place the mini muffin tray on a perforated sheet. If using regular metalware, do not forget to spray the muffin tray with lots of oil so that the cauliflower bites will not stick. No need to do this with the demarle cookware.
Cut little squares of brie, or camembert of about 1/2 inch or 1/5 cm and place them in the opening of each mini muffin.
Pour the mixture over brie. the in a mini muffin
Cook in a warm oven at 400 for 15-20 minutes.

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Cauliflower Bites

Posted March 12, 2015

Filed under appetizers, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, silpat, vegetables, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

Winter vegetables are very limited. There is not much more besides roots, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage. Of course, I could be eating all that my stores offer ( which is everything), but as a French person, I believe it is best to eat fruit and vegetables that are in season.

I am not fan of cabbage, and my family do not like carrots. As the result, I often cook brocoli and cauliflower in the winter time. It is not a problem because I like them both.

You can do so many things with both vegetables! You can roast, puree, steam, saute them,make soups.. So many things in fact that that if you were to open my fridge at any point in the winter, you would find both;-).

Well, when I looked in the fridge today, I realized that I had two bags of cauliflower. Since I had already made a soup and a casserole a few days ago, I did not want to serve them again as such. I had been meaning to make that cauliflower pizza that has been going around on faceboook, but time has been so scarce lately that I have not had time to make it and I was not really in the mood for pizza…

Anyway, I was adamant about making something with my cauliflower this evening. I had seen the recipe from DamDelicious , that I decided that I was going to give it a try this evening. Except I was going to make it somewhat healthier;-)) and somewhat less messy and faster.

Here we go:

Ingredients for 6-8 people:

3/4 bag of cauliflower from Costco, or 1 1/2 lbs of cauliflower heads
3 eggs
1/2 cup of parmesan
1/2 cup of italian bread crumbs
a spicy seasoning of your choice, I used Zesty Mediterranean from Demarle

Dill Dipping Sauce:

1 tsp of dill seasoning from Demarle
2 tbsp of mayonnaise
4 tbsp of sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

In a small bowl, place the eggs and mix them well.
In another bowl, mix the breadcrumbs, the parmesan and the zesty Mediterranean Spice from Demarle. Set aside.
Either cut the cauliflower head into small florets or buy the florets, That is what I did.
Dip the florets into the egg,
Then into the parmesan and place them onto the silpat that you would have placed on a large perforated sheet.
Roast at 425 for 10 minutes. You can eat as such, they are quite yummy, or you can make a dipping sauce.
Mix all the ingredients for the dipping sauce together, and enjoy with our reservation. Miami, miam;-)

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking !!!

Cauliflower Bites

Servings: 6-8 people
Time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: Super Easy
Print

Ingredients for 6-8 people:

3/4 bag of cauliflower from Costco, or 1 1/2 lbs of cauliflower heads
3 eggs
1/2 cup of parmesan
1/2 cup of italian bread crumbs
a spicy seasoning of your choice, I used Zesty Mediterranean from Demarle

Dill Dipping Sauce:

1 tsp of dill seasoning from Demarle
2 tbsp of mayonnaise
4 tbsp of sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

In a small bowl, place the eggs and mix them well. In another bowl, mix the breadcrumbs, the parmesan and the zesty Mediterranean Spice from Demarle. Set aside.
Either cut the cauliflower head into small florets or buy the florets, That is what I did.
Dip the florets into the egg, then into the parmesan and place them onto the silpat.
Roast at 425 for 10 minutes. You can eat as such, they are quite yummy, or you can make a dipping sauce.
Mix all the ingredients together and enjoy with our reservation. Miami, miam;-)

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking !!!

If you like what you read or see, please share;-) Merci beaucoup!!!

Roasted Cauliflower

Posted June 3, 2013

Filed under Recipe with Demarle Cookware, silpat, vegetables, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

Today I will present a very easy and healthy recipe: Roasted Cauliflower. Growing up my mom always steamed cauliflower and we would usually eat it with a white sauce. Even my mother-in-law prepares it this way. I have made puree with Cauliflower as well. You can make Mashed Cauliflower, or incorporate some cauliflower to mashed potatoes to make them healthier;-)

But I had never made Roasted CAuliflower until a friend of mine suggested it. So here it is. Here I am seasoning the cauliflower with Roasted and Chives Herb Mix from Demarle, but really any spices would taste great on it.

Ingredients for 2:

1/4 of a cauliflower head or about 1 cup.
1 tsp of roasted garlic and chives Demarle Herb Mix
salt
pepper
1 tbsp of olive oil

Cut the florets off the head of the cauliflower. Then slice each floret thinly. Repeat until you have used 1/4 of the cauliflower or about 1 cup.
Place the sliced cauliflower in a bowl, and drizzle the cauliflower with about 1 tbsp of olive oil.
With a spoon stir so as to coat the slices of cauliflower with the olive oil.
Place a silpat on a perforated sheet and lay the cauliflower on it.
Season with salt and pepper and with the roasted garlic herb mix.
Cook in a warm oven for 8 minutes. Et voila!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!

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Cauliflower Cream

Posted February 16, 2013

Filed under appetizers, soup, veloute

The day before valentine’s I needed to fix dinner and since I had some cauliflower in the fridge I decided to make a cauliflower gratin with bechamel as it is one of my children’s favorite. I had a million of things to do that day so I asked my sweet child to go grocery shopping for me.

To my liking she had bought all I needed ( not like someone else in the house;-), but she had also bought another cauliflower… Two to fix…. That was a bit much…
I guess I could have roasted the cauliflower florets in the oven later on this week but with Valentin’s coming, I decided that a cauliflower cream would be good:-)
And it is easy to make too:-)
Ingredients for about 6-8 servings:

1 cauliflower head
1 medium white onion , sweet preferably
4 cups of vegetable broth
1-2 cups of heavy cream
1/2 tsp of salt
1/8 tsp of pepper

Cut the cauliflower in small florets.
Place them in the large round mold and place the octogonal silpat.
Cook for 6/8 minutes. It needs to be tender.
Meanwhile warm up 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large pot and when the oil is warm add the chopped onion.
Stir and cook until it sweats. Then add the cooked cauliflower and cook it also for a few minutes.
Add the warm broth, salt, pepper and stir.
Bring the mixture to boil, then lower to low and cook for 15 minutes.
Purée the soup, add the cream and warm it up. Add salt if needed.
Fill up individual bowls and sprinkle celeri seed, or salt on top for added flavor.

Bon appetit and happy cooking!!!

Cauliflower au Gratin

Posted August 24, 2011

Filed under vegetables, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

I am certain some of you are going to think that cauliflower is not something that you would eat, but it is truly good. In fact it is one of my children’s favorite. It is more of a winter recipe because it is so rich, but the cauliflower looked so good in its display that I could not leave it there;-) Ha ha..Anyway I usually cook it as a meal, but it would be great as a side to a winter meal.

Ingredients: 1 cauliflower head, 2 cups of low fat or even skim milk, 2 cups of sharp cheddar cheese, 1 pound of lean ham cut and diced in small squares. 4 tbsp of flour, 2 tbsp of butter.

Cut the florets out of the cauliflower and place them in a large round silicon mold. Place the octogonal on top of the large round mold and microwave for 5 minutes. While the cauliflower is cooking, prepare la sauce Bechamel. In a small saucepan, melt 2 tbsp of butter. When the butter is melting, add the 4 tbsp of flour and mix well to make a roux. When the flour is turning golden, throw in the milk and stir until the sauce is thickening. When the sauce is thicker, but still a bit runny, add 1 cup of cheese and mix well. Season with pepper and salt. Set aside. Remove the cauliflower from the microwave, and add the diced ham. Mix so that the ham will be all around the cauliflower. Pour in the sauce. Top with the remaining cup of cheddar cheese, and bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Miam

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!